Efforts To Remediate Troubled Tap Water Near Air Force Bases Is Too Little Too Late

Water Contamination Lawsuit News

Families in Colorado were told by the Air Force starting in 2016 not to drink the local tap water

Sunday, May 29, 2022 - Military veterans and their families that have developed PFAS cancer or other diseases from drinking PFAS Forever chemical-contaminated tap water have been discouraged from filing a lawsuit against the military. This was particularly frustrating for civilian military employees and also people who live, work and play on or near the base. Earlier in the year, The Hill.com wrote about one person, a male nurse working and living near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, who has survived several family members who have died from allegedly drinking the local PFAS forever chemical contaminated tap water. Forever chemicals are a byproduct of using firefighting foam, the preferred method of extinguishing jet fuel and petroleum fires. Forever chemicals do not organically break down in the air, soil, or water and accumulate rapidly to carcinogenic levels in the bodies of those who are exposed to or ingest them. The nurse blames the Department of Justice for negligently contaminating the local drinking water. "Decades of firefighting foam leached into the groundwater and contaminated both private wells and public waterways, a fact that the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged and worked to clean up." Servicemembers, their spouses, and young children drank contaminated tap water without warning about what the military knew about the contamination. Thousands of children around the country have died from leukemia, a deadly form of blood cancer, in the first few years of life after their mothers drank tap water while pregnant. According to The Hill, the Air Force no longer trains using toxic firefighting foam, but does store and use it in case of emergency when lives are at risk. Homes around Air Force bases have been told not to drink the tap water since 2016 and were given bottled water to drink. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forever, chemicals include "hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid and its ammonium salt (HFPO-DA -- sometimes referred to as GenX chemicals), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS)."

Events are moving rapidly and pretty soon military veterans and their family members who have been sickened by drinking ordinary tap water in their homes may be able to sue the military for lump-sum monetary compensation. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, an integral part of the Honoring Our Pact Act will enable veterans to file lawsuits against the federal government and encourage others who have been sickened with contaminated drinking water to do the same. Camp Lejeune cancer lawyers are interviewing military families to see if they qualify to file suit. Passage of the Act is all but certain as it sailed through the House of Representatives and now awaits final approval in the Senate. The HOPA eliminates restrictions at the Veterans Administration (VA) so that military veterans with cancer and their family members who have been stricken with burn pit and tap water illnesses can apply for enhanced medical benefits.

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